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Replacement dolomite in the Latemar carbonate buildup developed when limestone was infiltrated by reactive fluid. Minor-element, trace-element, and oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of dolomite and precursor limestone constrain the origin of the fluid and fundamental aspects of the flow. Inferred salinity (similar to seawater); temperature (45°- 85°C); 87Sr/86Sr (0.7076 - 0.7079); Ca/Mg (<1.4); and Fe, Mn, and Zn content of the dolomitizing fluid are consistent with a fluid similar to modem diffuse effluent. Modem diffuse effluent itself is approximately a mixture of seawater with up to ̃25 percent high-temperature mid-ocean ridge hydrothennal vent fluid. Time-integrated fluid flux was in the range (2-4) · 106 mol fluid/cm2 rock or (4-7) · 107 cm3 fluid/cm2rock. Estimation of time-integrated flux leads to an internally consistent framework for the appropriate interpretation of the oxygen, strontium, and carbon isotope compositions of replacement dolomite. The oxygen and strontium isotope compositions reflect equilibration with dolomitizing fluid and provide a chemical fingerprint of the fluid. The carbon isotope composition of dolomite, however, was simply inherited directly from the precursor limestone in nearly all cases. A quantitative evaluation of the minor- and trace-element budget of dolomitization verifies that a fluid like modern diffuse effluent, but not unmodified seawater, could supply sufficient Fe, Mn, and Zn to enrich dolomite in these elements compared to limestone. If the flux of dolomitizing fluid was similar to that of modern diffuse effluent, ̃0.02 cm3/cm2 · s, the duration of fluid flow and mineral-fluid reaction was short, ̃100 years. The total duration of dolomitization, however, could have been much longer if fluid flow was episodic, as in modern seafloor hydrothermal systems, depending on the time elapsed between episodes of flow. Conversion of limestone to dolomite likely occurred by a mechanism intermediate between the end-member cases of replacement at constant oxygen and carbon and replacement at constant volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replacement dolomite in the Latemar carbonate buildup, northern Italy, formed when limestone was infiltrated by and reacted with Mg-rich fluid. It occurs in discrete bodies in sharp contact with unreacted limestone. The dolomite developed in a nearly orthogonal lattice of vertical columns (replacement of limestone breccia pipes) and sheets (replacement along fractures and limestone-dike contacts) and of nearly horizontal bedding-parallel sheets and tubes. Mapped patterns of replacement dolomite directly image that part of the plumbing system in which the amount of fluid flow was sufficient to form dolomite. Decreases in the proportion of dolomite relative to limestone and in the proportion of vertical relative to horizontal dolomite-limestone contacts with increasing elevation indicate that the overall direction of fluid flow was upward and then outward along more permeable bedding horizons. Dolomite is significantly enriched in Fe, Mn, and Zn, as well as in Mg, relative to calcite in precursor limestone but not in Cu, Ni, Co, Cr, Ba, or Pb. The Fe, Mn, and Zn content of dolomite varies spatially within outcrops from the scale of meters down to the micron scale of oscillatory growth zoning in individual dolomite crystals. The variation is interpreted in terms of a dolomitizing fluid that, unlike unmodified seawater, contained significant amounts of Fe, Mn, and Zn, as well as of Mg, and whose composition varied in space at a range of scales and in time at the site of growth of individual dolomite crystals. A nearly complete overlap in the δ13C of dolomite (2.0-4.6‰, VPDB) and calcite (1.1-4.0‰) is evidence that the δ13C of most dolomite was inherited directly from the calcite precursor. Measured δ18O of dolomite has a wide range (21.8-27.7‰, VSMOW) overlapping with that of calcite (23.4- 28.5‰) but shifted to lower values. Dolomite with δ18O <23.4 permil could not have been equilibrium with any analyzed calcite at any temperature. The ranges in δ18ODol and δ18OCal and values of δ18ODol <23.4 permil both indicate that δ18O of calcite and dolomite were set by oxygen isotope exchange with the same fluid over a range of temperatures, with isotopically different fluids, or both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]